Barry

Barry is my first son fifteen months younger than Julie, two years older than Danny who is 15 months older than my baby Jennifer. Barry keeps his body strong and agile. He learned to walk and talk during his first year, and we were surprised by his superior mind. In his first few years he acted like a little man. He was serious but with a good sense of humor. His sister Julie played teacher and taught him math and spelling.

At age five Barry complained of a bad headache. I suspected brain disease. We took him to a hospital where a doctor friend of mine tapped his spinal fluid and found an infection. Antibiotics cured him. The experience was painful. Barry decided to become a medical doctor. In school he was proud of his ability to get along with everybody, to learn his lessons and to have perfect attendance. Barbara and I did not tolerate bad manners, sassing us, or misbehaving in any way. When I felt it was necessary I gave Barry spankings using my belt that made slapping noises but not meant to hurt him. He was not allowed to use profanity. He was given instructions in Jewish religion by his mother Barbara and by his Grandfather Ben Cohn I taught him to accept my word. If I said "no" he did not beg me or ask Barbara.

I taught Barry to try not to cry when he was uncomfortable or disappointed. I did this by rewarding him with a hug or shaking hands with him and praising him when he stopped crying. Barry was a good boy most of the time and used his keen mind to learn fast and to stay out of trouble. I respected his judgment even when he was a child.

Barry accompanied me to the beach when he was four years old. We drove to the Newport Beach jetty, found a parking place, and walked toward the rock jetty. We stopped and watched the body surfers brave the famous wedge, a place where large waves meet the jetty. The waves wedge themselves against the rocks causing the water to build higher waves than anywhere else close by. (When I was five, my father had brought us to the same beach. At that time the sand was made up of tiny sea shells, and it hurt my feet to walk on the sharp shells.) I carried my skin diving equipment in a navy duffel bag and a spear gun in one hand. I held Barry on my shoulders with the other hand. Four year old Barry sat on my shoulders while I ran jumping from rock to rock for a half mile until we reached the end where the tower light house stands. Barry was brave and did not protest the danger as we could have slipped and fallen into the gaping holes between the huge boulders. We usually went on these fishing trips late in the afternoon when I got off work. I carried a little fishing pole for Barry to use while I dived for fish to put on the table. We didn't have much money in those days to buy meat, so the fish came in handy. Barry seldom caught fish, but he learned to love the idea of trying to catch them with hook and line.

One day we found there were several small sea lions lying on the rocks at the end of the jetty. I had a movie camera and decided to try and get some pictures with Barry and the seals. I coaxed Barry to get closer and closer to the wild animals. He was so small they showed little fear of him. But Barry could see their teeth bare as they smiled and barked at him. He was not convinced they would not bite him and neither was I. Still he moved to within inches of one of the smaller sea lions, and I was proud to get a good movie.

Our four children were not allowed out of the yard unless supervised. I built a sidewalk circling the hundred foot diameter back yard for bikes, tricycles, toy wagons, etc. We kept a German shepherd dog named Chui who guarded and enjoyed playing with the kids.

Barry learned to sing in a quartet with his brother and two sisters. Barry was about seven. They learned to sing while doing choreography. Singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" one child was a pitcher, one catcher, one batter, and the last was the umpire. I kept a picture when they sang at an S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. Inc. program in Garden Grove.

Barry went to a forest in Northern California where his Great Aunt Edith and Uncle Walt lived. Uncle Walt taught him to catch trout, and Aunt Edith showed him how to cook. There was no electricity. They had recently bought a Coleman lantern. Barry read the booklet and put the lantern together replacing the wick. Aunt Edith and Uncle Walt were pleased that a nine year old boy could read and follow all the instructions.

My boss took his wife Betty, Barry and me fishing for sharks in the Pacific ocean ten miles off Newport Beach. After several hours of fishing the waves became too large for our small outboard cabin cruiser. Betty went down in the cabin where she got sick and threw up. Barry felt sick so he went to the toilet down in the cabin where he lost his cookies too. When the wife asked Barry if he felt sick, he would not admit it. No matter how bad he felt, Barry would never complain. Later when we arrived close to the bay, Barry caught a baby shark only about two feet long. It was the smallest blue shark I had ever seen.

Barry studied baseball history and knew more about the game than I ever learned coaching Little League for eight years. During those games I used Barry's advice. Barry was not the fastest runner, but he was a very good ball player. He ran well enough to steal bases. Once he hit a single and stole the rest of the bases by getting out of pickles between bases. His hand eye coordination was good, and he paid close attention to the game from age seven to about fifteen years old. He enjoyed playing catcher the most active position. He said, "Dad, the catcher keeps busy all the time and doesn't get bored. He is in a position to see everything. It is important for him to know if there are two outs and runners on the bases. The runners should run on the third strike, and the catcher reminds them. He also should know the batter might usually hit to left or right field. Then the catcher moves the fielders over toward left field or the other way if that's the way the guy usually hits. You must be smart to play catcher. But you have to watch out because you might break a finger or get hurt from a guy sliding home."

He also played second base and sometimes pitcher. When Danny, my second son was old enough, they played on the same teams for several years. Danny respected his older brother, but they were sometimes rivals in sports. I respected both kids and they played very smart ball. But because he was two years older, Barry always won arguments with Danny.

Barry learned to ride my bicycle before he was big enough to sit on the seat. It was fun to watch him get on. He ran next to the bike on the sidewalk, put his left foot on the foot peddle, then climbed over the bar and that's where he sat peddling the bike. When he got off he had to climb over to the left side while the bike coasted to get his feet close to the ground.

We owned a white Welsh pony when we moved from Garden Grove to Vista. Barry learned to ride the pony bareback. Soon he learned to ride his own big horse. He was a good backyard rider. I watched him get on the horse in our backyard. Without putting on a bridle, Barry would put some hay on the ground. When the horse reached his head down to eat, Barry swung his leg over the horses head facing backwards. When the horse lifted up his head, Barry slid down the neck to the horses back where he turned around to sit. The horse would walk around without needing any saddle, bridle, or reins. Before high school he more or less stopped riding after I let him fall off an untrained horse. He was scratched up pretty good.

As he grew older Barry became skilled in several sports. At Vista High School Barry was a champion tennis player and wrestler. He excelled in science studies and learned to sing and play a guitar without lessons. He dated pretty girls and learned to dance and drive a car. I taught him how to drive letting him drive my rider lawn mower. He did not get in any fist fights, but he did study kurate. He graduated as the valedictorian of Vista High School.

Barry decided to go to Stanford and to major in chemistry in order to prepare for entrance to a good medical school. He chose Stanford because he felt it was the best school. He graduated with honors with a degree in Chemistry. He worked as a chemist for a few months after graduation and was successful in helping to develop a new plastic used to protect the Alaska pipeline.

Barry applied to several medical schools all around the country. He was not able to get into California state schools because our schools took foreign and minority students first because they had to pay higher fees. At one time he told me he would like to change his name to sound Mexican. Eventually he was accepted by Loyola Catholic Medical School near Chicago. Loyola is a school that gives more practical experience to student medical doctors.

Barry lived with very little money to spend and had poor housing. For a while he slept in a basement. He never showed it to me, but I know his life was very difficult. He felt like a poor boy with a lot of more wealthy schoolmates. During his second year we bought him a large old house in a mixed neighborhood. He was able to get several boarders and they shared expenses. He got a better car to drive and dated a nice girl. Barry excelled in his studies and managed the house quite well, often making repairs and gardening himself to save money. He allowed neighbor children to play in his yard and made friends with the people in his mixed ethnic neighborhood.

Barry continued to engage in sports like basketball for exercise. He taught himself to play a guitar. After learning he played guitar and sang for medical student dances and parties. Barry sang Bob Dylan songs most frequently and his little duo was popular. He seemed to enjoy all aspects of medicine but decided to become a general surgeon.

Barry volunteered and helped a transplant surgeon at the Veterans hospital near Chicago. They used animals like pigs and rats to develop a way to transplant tissue that produced insulin. He was working and hoping to cure diabetes. To develop hand and finger dexterity, he practiced knitting and learned to tie knots one handed with either hand. One experiment he told me about was taking the Isles of Langerhans from an animal, mixing the insulin making material into a solution and injecting it into another animal that needed it. He said the material would set up housekeeping in the intestines where insulin would grow.

Dr. Barry Browne was selected to be a resident surgeon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he purchased a house. He took in two boarders to help make expenses. During the seven year residency in Milwaukee he married Lori Derzon who was pretty, smart, healthy, and fun.

Lori worked for a large bank as an auditor for loan applicants who applied for multi million dollar loans. This required her to do overnight traveling. Before long she was pregnant, and she quit work to raise two daughters born two years apart.

Barry assisted and performed many kinds of surgery during his residency. He worked in the emergency rooms treating knife and gunshot wounds, drug over-dosed and poisoned patients, and accident victims of car crashes. As a surgeon he did every kind of surgery from plastic to whatever. One of the major doctors wanted to help him become a medical specialist. He was often required to work thirty-six hours without rest. He had little time off but still managed to buy a third much nicer home in Milwaukee to live in. Later he sold the house in Chicago. In his spare time Barry and Lori did major repairs on the home including rewiring the electrical circuits, carpentry, plumbing and painting.

Dr. Barry Browne and his little family spent six months of his surgical residency at Oxford, England. He was not pleased with socialized medicine because getting salaries, the doctors had no incentive to work hard. He said, "They spent too much time drinking tea. With a list of patients waiting for surgery, doctors postponed operations so they wouldn't have to work hard. In the U.S. they would have doubled or tripled their work load."

Barry decided not to specialize in brain surgery because too many of the surgeries fail to cure patients. He preferred doing transplant operations. The residency was difficult because not all the residents were able to remain on the program. He knew that if he made a mistake he might be dropped. He spent part of his residency doing research with laboratory animals. He learned to do microscopic surgery operating on circulatory systems of rats.

After his residency He found work inn Texas. A group of hospitals in Houston, Texas hired him as their first ever Fellow in their liver and kidney transplant department. He bought a nice home and sold his property in Milwaukee. For a long time his medical superiors treated him with little respect as if he were still an intern. Eventually he earned respect and was given many responsibilities. He was often called in the evening, flew to another city like Dallas for instance. There he waited for other surgeons to harvest organs like the heart, lungs, or eyes. Then he scrubbed and harvested a liver or kidneys, hopped back on a plane, carried the organs to the hospital and operated for hours transplanting the organs to someone who needed them. Lori grew accustomed to his many hours on the job. She kept busy teaching and entertaining her two bright little girls, and she was active in the community. She designed and built a community playground, for instance. She and Barry were active in religious activities, but Barry was given little time off from work.

When Barry had time at home, he was busy helping to teach the children. Sometimes he helped cook, fix things, or worked in the yard. He was often busy retiling floors, replacing warn out electric wires in the attic and walls, and doing manual labor.

After two years in Texas they moved to Philadelphia. Barry headed a department in kidney transplant surgery. He became a good leader. I have seen the respect shown to him by his associates and his patients. After learning much more about being a surgeon, Barry moved his family to Mobile, Alabama where Barry opened a new kidney transplant program at South Alabama State Hospital. Later their third child was born, a boy named Joseph with a high I.Q. just like his dad, mother and two older sisters.